Heroes: "Unexpected" Review

As the promos promised, there was flying and there was dying, on this exciting episode.

This was another jam packed episode of Heroes, with several storylines furthered, and some very exciting character interaction along the way. First let's deal with one of the weaker aspect though, which was Hiro and Ando. The storyline, with Ando being conned by Hope, and Hiro chasing after him with the corrupt gaming commission officer, dragged and really seemed to be an unnecessary part of the episode. It was a bit amusing to have a big gun fight between Hope and the officer, complete with the sound of an explosion, occur mostly offscreen, as we held on Hiro and Ando's faces. And there was at least Hiro's cool move of using his power in a new way, as he reversed time and caused Hope's gun to misfire. But Hiro deciding that a partner was a burden, and leaving Ando, seemed forced. It was all based on the advice of a creepy guy who would later shoot Ando in the arm himself, and it seems inevitable Ando and Hiro will be reunited, so why bother with this? At least we got a quick cameo from Stan Lee as the bus driver.

However, all the other elements of the episode were very strong. Mohinder and Sylar found the next person on the list; Dale, a woman with superhearing. Sylar snuck off and killed the woman, before Mohinder could really question her. In a nice touch, it lead to some rather negative experiences for Sylar, as he found himself unable to control her power and suffering from some rather agonizing reaction as a result. It remains to be seen how long before Mohinder figures out he's driving a serial killer to each of his next victims, but one would presume he'd have to get suspicious soon, as he already realizes Sylar must be working from the same list they have. Kudos to Zachary Quinto, who is doing his best work yet so far on Heroes, portraying both the vicious Sylar, and the fake nice guy persona he has created around Mohinder.

After his brief cameo a couple episodes back, Ted made a big return this week, approached by a new character, who can pick up and transmit internet information with her mind. Her name is Hana, AKA Wireless (Stana Katic), and it's fun to have one of our first genuine superhero sounding names on the series. We'll forgive the somewhat clunky dialogue in the scene in which the two met, since their storyline then hurtled forward to some very cool places. Their recruitment of Matt into their group, as three people wronged by Mr. Bennet, was very cool, and set up a small little team dynamic we haven't seen except among Bennet's own group so far. And it was interesting to discover that the markings several of the characters have on their shoulder are a tracking system Bennet has implanted them with.

Matt meets with Ted and Wireless

The Bennet household meanwhile got plenty of its own drama, with Claire daring to bring up the idea to her mother that her father shouldn't be trusted. When her mom collapsed and was briefly hospitalized, thanks to brain damage caused by the frequent mindwipes, Claire confronted Mr. Bennet, revealing she remembers everything and was aware of what he was doing. It was great to see this all come out now, rather than prolonged further, as Claire finally let her dad know just how dangerous she felt he was, and that she would run away, except that she felt she had to protect her own family from him. This however was interrupted by the appearance of Matt, Ted and Wireless, and again, we're impressed with how quickly things move on this show: In the very same episode that this trio decides to take the fight to Bennet, they do just that, instead of several episodes of planning and talking about it, as one might imagine could occur.

However, the character that got the most forward momentum, both psychologically and physically, was Peter. Peter really came into his own this episode, as he showed time and again the ability to reuse the powers he'd previously absorbed from others. The jaw dropping moment of the episode came when he first stopped Bennet and the Haitian's tasers in mid air, then grabbed Claude's unconscious body, pushed him over the side of a roof, flew down, caught him and flew them both away. It was incredibly impressive, and just plain kick ass, and though it's hard not to worry that in the long term it might be a problem having a character this powerful as a lead, for the time being, Peter's become awfully cool to behold.

The episode culminated with Peter confronting Isaac, realizing Isaac led Bennet to him. Once more Peter got to show off his powers, using Claude's invisibility and Sylar's telekinesis to hide from a gun brandishing Isaac and send Isaac flying across the room. Alas, Isaac fired a wild shot when he heard a sound, and it was Simone who he accidentally shot and killed. We're not too sorry to see her go; the character never was that interesting or necessary to the storyline. But we sure are curious to see what the fallout from this will be.

It's also worth noting that Simone was in Peter's dream, in which he blows up. Does her death mean the events of that dream may not be as literal as they seem, or that at least part of that future is already changing? We're certainly curious to see how it all plays out.